Your Favorite Halloween Candy Might be the Least Healthy

One of the most popular Halloween candies is also nothing but sugar and additives, according to nutrition experts. That probably won't stop any of us from eating it, but we should probably know these things just in case we can muster a moment of willpower.

As a kid, I never put one second of thought into the nutritional value of Skittles as the handfuls were on their way to my mouth. But as a parent, I've turned into a label-reader, and now I realize how much sugar I downed back then. I've also realized it's way more fun to live in denial sometimes.

Skittles are among the least healthy Halloween candies, according to the nutrition experts, because of their high sugar content per serving and all of the additives, without having any real nutritional value. But it's so much fun to suck on the pink ones until they get soft and crack, and then crunch a red one right away for an extra flavor punch. Nutrition NuSMISHon.

Snickers are also on the unhealthy list because even the bite-sized ones that are so tiny they're no fun, are calorie dense and high in sugar. The nougat gets the blame because that packs a lot of sugar and sticks to kids' teeth, and outweighs any value we might get from the protein in the peanuts. But they sure are good frozen.

Candy corn is loaded with sugar too, but that's not the biggest problem. It's the way it's packaged. Instead of single-servings, candy corn is usually given to us in big bags so we over-indulge and eat two or three times as much as we should. But it's a little healthy to mix it with pretzels and unsalted nuts, right?

So those are the ones that aren't so good for us. Which Halloween candies are the healthiest? None of them are fantastic, but these are better options, according to the diet experts.

Twizzlers. They're fat-free, and they take forever to eat because they're so chewy and that keeps us from eating other candy for a few minutes. And all of that hard work with the jaws might burn an extra calorie too.

Mini Reese's Cups. These have a little protein and fat to keep us satisfied for longer than most candy.

Dum Dum. One of those little suckers has 20 calories and about four grams of sugar. And again, if we have a sucker in our mouths, nothing else more sugary and fattening can get in there.

Dark Chocolate. It's got antioxidants, and if nuts like walnuts or almonds are mixed in, we've got the extra benefit of omega-3's.

The words "candy" and "healthy" aren't supposed to be synonymous, and when we're digging through the office candy dish we're not in there hunting for multi-vitamins. But now we know some candies are better than others so we can make an informed decision about how we're going to indulge for the next four weeks. Plenty of time to test several plans of attack.